The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door Read Online Free PDF

on the log next to me.
    I reminded myself for the second time that day that Drake’s real life was still back in New York. “Japhy?” I asked. “Like the character in
Dharma Bums
?”
    “Hippie parents.” Drake laughed. “His mom’s an actress at the theatre my dad runs. You’re well read.”
    “Is Japhy
the guy
?”
    “Yeah. He’s
the guy
. He’s my best friend since we were ten. We’ve always been close, and I guess I always knew I had feelings, but in the last month . . . I don’t know, something’s been changing. You know, Celia, when you can just
tell
someone likes you?”
    “Yeah. It’s so . . . cool when that happens,” I lied.
    “The last time he was over . . .” Drake stopped. “It’s hard to explain.”
    “Do you guys hang out a lot?” I didn’t want to feel jealous of Drake’s other friend, his
best
friend, whom he did
like
. But I did.
    “Our parents have always had dinner together every Tuesday night and then gone to a show. When we were little, they would bring Japhy over and get us a sitter. When we turned twelve, we convinced them we could be left alone. Well, really, Japhy convinced them. Japhy likes trouble.”
    Since I met Drake the day before, he had looked so confident and unflappable. Now he was blushing and braiding his fingers together. He stood up again and picked a stick out of the dirt.
    “When we do something risky, or a little dangerous, Japhy calls it the ‘envelope
,
’ like ‘Come on man, we gotta
push the envelope
.’” Drake kicked leaves away from a patch of dirt and started drawing pictures with his stick. I dangled a leg on either side of our tree-bench.
    “Sometimes we sneak out and go to Times Square, talk to homeless guys, skateboard on subway platforms, count rats.” Drake drew a circle surrounded by arrows. “Our parents don’t know about any of it.”
    Jealousy threatened to burn a hole right through my sweatshirt. Why didn’t I get a best friend to sneak out of the house and count rats with? Why didn’t I get a best friend who was possibly in love with me and liked trouble? I felt cheated. Sandy Firestone’s face flashed through my mind.
    “But the last time, we decided to stay home. We were playing video games in the living room, and I kept beating him. So, finally, he grabbed the controller out of my hand and tackled me. Japhy’s athletic, great at basketball and skating. I was fighting back, but he pinned me on the floor.” Drake threw down his stick and stood in the leaves, holding out both arms to pantomime the act of holding someone down. “We’ve always wrestled, but this time when he was lying on top of me, he just looked at me and smiled. Then he said, ‘Don’t beat me again,’ and got up.” Drake’s cheeks were in full bloom, red as a sunburn.
    “After that, we just sat on the fire escape and watched pedestrians. But I have the feeling that he was telling me something. That smile. Wow, I’m so nervous,” Drake said, shaking his hands like he had just washed them and couldn’t find a towel.
    “There’s a new play opening at my dad’s theatre this weekend. I’ll see it Friday night, and then Japhy will come over Saturday night while our parents are at the show again. I’m going to tell him, Celia. Or, at least, see how things go and maybe tell him or maybe just . . . No. I have to tell him. I can’t chicken out.” Drake ran both hands through his hair and then styled it again. “Then I’ll tell my parents on Sunday.
    “Celia,” said Drake, turning toward me and folding both arms over his chest. “Promise me you won’t tell anyone what I told you? I don’t want anyone in Hershey to know before I tell my parents.”
    Drake looked so vulnerable then, I felt terrible for being jealous of him. Plus, it had been a painfully long time since anyone shared a secret with me. “Drake,” I said, pulling my hands out of my hoodie sleeves and clutching them together. “I would never do that. I promise I